Ferrari were very unlucky with the timing of the safety car in the European Grand Prix.

Seeing one of their principal rivals avoid the same misfortune by illegally overtaking the safety car prompted howls of criticism from the team, calling the result “a scandal” and claiming Formula 1 “could lose some credibility”.

Four points for eight place was a meagre result from a weekend where much had been expected as the team introduced its exhaust-driven diffuser upgrade.

Very close to Alonso in qualifying, Massa made it up to fourth on the first lap by passing Webber around the outside of turn three.

But his race suffered even more from the safety car appearance than Alonso’s did, as he had to wait behind his team mate in the pit lane.

Alonso and Massa were the only cars who had to wait behind the safety car before pitting. Robert Kubica, 1.8 seconds behind Massa, got the message early enough to get in the pits.

After the safety car came in Massa was 17th. He moved ahead of the Virgin duo with little difficulty but couldn’t pass Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Force India. Penalties promoted him to a point-less 11th after the race.

Alonso was fastest in front of his home crowd in second practice but both F10 drivers struggled to find the same performance improvement on the super-soft tyres that their rivals enjoyed.

Fourth place on the grid behind the Red Bulls and Lewis Hamilton was a minor disappointment. But the team looked in good shape for the race and Alonso was able to keep pace with Hamilton in the opening stages.

Then came the safety car deployment which clearly ruined his race. In front of Alonso, Vettel was far enough ahead not to get stuck behind the safety car, and Hamilton overtook it.

Alonso was tenth when the safety car came in and quickly passed Nico H?ā??lkenberg for ninth, all the while urging his team on the radio to press ahead with complaints against Hamilton.

While Adrian Sutil ahead of him was able to find a way past Sebastien Buemi, Alonso could not do the same, which hurt the Ferrari driver when penalties were handed out to ten drivers at the end of the race.

By the end of the race Alonso, on worn medium tyres, could to little to hold back Kamui Kobayashi when the Sauber driver appeared behind him on a fresh set of super-softs. Alonso crossed the line in ninth place and inherited one place thanks to Buemi’s penalty.

Sutil also got a penalty, but kept his place ahead of Alonso having pulled more than five seconds ahead of the Ferrari after passing Buemi.

Ferrari continued to criticise the race today, issuing further statements such as this:

84 comments on Bad luck and bad tempers at Ferrari after European GP (Ferrari race review)

Seeing one of their principal rivals avoid the same misfortune by illegally overtaking the safety car prompted howls of criticism from the team, calling the result āa scandalā and claiming Formula 1 ācould lose some credibilityā.

Is it just me, or is Ferrari reeking of a Briatore-like attitude to these things? It’s not hard to see how this could manifest into a “Formula 1 is only credible when Ferrari is winning” party line.

Completely agree – I find the tone of Ferrari’s statements to be very strange. Alonso would still have been 9th if Hamilton had stayed behind the safety car. Ferrari’s result would have been equally “misrepresentative”. They’re clearly very hung up on McLaren, and Hamilton in particular.

The penalty call should have come a lot sooner – but, as other commenters have mentioned, Race Control would initially have been fully focussed on the car that had just landed upside-down at 160+ mph. Without a report from Ferrari or from Bernd MaylĆ¤nder (the safety car is a Mercedes! Conspiracy!), Hamilton’s indecision might not even have been noticed.

I think that, at the very least, Ferrari were expecting to race Hamilton. They didn’t care whether it was for first or for ninth – they wanted to go wheel-to-wheel with him because they were in Valencia. In Spain, Alonso is always the hero and Hamilton the villain. Even if Alonso finishes out of the points, the fans would settle for a fight between Alonso and Hamilton.

You think all you want about the Ferrari statements, but your statement “Alonso would still have been 9th if Hamilton had stayed behind the safety car” is ridiculous.

Hamilton should have stayed behind the safety car and in the end he then would’ve finished 1 place in front of Alonso. Which is very important for the wdc (look at standing). But, the facts are that 5 drivers drove too fast behind the SC and thereby where aided in overtaking Alonso (and Hamilton if he’d stayed behind the SC). A 5 second penalty is therefore nothing short of ridiculous and of course the same goes for the penalty against Hamilton which came way too late (or the penalty should’ve been more severe).

So, Ferrari’s anger is at least partially justified.

I don’t understand why only a small number of commenters plead for a change in the SC procedure, namely:

The SC should be deployed (as it is now) as fast as possible in case of a serious accident. Therefore, the SC will enter the track at a random position in the field. They should then simultaneously close the pitlane, to avoid random cars (like in valencia) taking an unfair advantage (just irl and nascar). Then, when everything is sorted out behind the SC, the pitlane should open.

I totally agree. I haven’t seen any reason why Alonso HAD to go into the pits when he did. As Kobayashi proved, staying out when everyone else goes in is a good strategy.
Maybe I’m showing my ignorance here, but if Hamilton and Vettel were in front of the Safety Car, how did they get to be at the front behind it when the race restarted? Logic says they slowed down and let it pass them. If that is the case, then there was not any advantage to them that they were in front of the Safety Car, thus while Hamilton had broken the rules, it was a technicality because neither he nor Vettel were recorded as being a lap ahead of everyone else at any stage at the restart.
Had Alonso not gone into the pits he would have been third behind Hamilton, kept pace with him, and then when Hamilton did his penalty, which was for an offence which looked pretty much accidental, then Alonso would have been in a position to go in, change his tires, and then come out and still be ahead of both Hamilton and Kobayashi.

I totally agree. I havenāt seen any reason why Alonso HAD to go into the pits when he did. As Kobayashi proved, staying out when everyone else goes in is a good strategy.

That only worked for Kobayashi because he started on the medium tyres and switched to the super-softs late on. The super-soft tyres Alonso (and everyone else in the top ten) started on wouldn’t have lasted 50 laps at that kind of pace.

How would hamilton know his penalty would be a joke? For all Hamilton knew, he could have gotten a 10 second stop-go, or even a post race time penalty that might have thrown him out of the points.
Is that supposed to be supported by your assertion that Hamilton is the stewards’ “protege”?

You are confused because this is an english site and mine is criticism towards an english political transient supremacy and an-at the moment-untouchable english driver.
I understand your confusion…but IĀ“m afraid thereĀ“s not much more I can do to light you up…

If Hamilton is the stewards’ golden child, why has he received more warnings and reprimands than everyone else combined in this year alone (or at least until the nine drivers were hit with those penalties)?

Exactly… He has received more warnings, but very little in the way of any serious action against him or his place in the final results. As far as the other nine drivers, have you EVER heard of a five second penalty? Especially when the ONLY penalty they could have handed Schumacher for passing Alonso was a 20 second penalty. It stinks.

The problem with Ferrari and Alonso is that they think they are entitled to points and can’t accept bad luck and move on like other teams. They are not the ony team that has had a bad race day. Bringing upgrades does NOT guarantee you a win or high points. What stopped Alonso qualifying much higher up with all the new parts?

This is Hilarious. A year or two ago if the safety car didn’t go your way it was unlucky and one of those things, and if you were midfield or back markers and the safety car let you get into the points it was good luck.

When the luck goes their way, all is well.
Now all of a sudden cause Ferrari ended up with the bad luck. The safety car rules are broken.

Well, two years ago the safety car rules were different, namely the pits were closed. The rules were changed for 2009 to accommodate cars that had to refuel during the SC. With refueling no longer allowed in 2010, it looks like the FIA forgot to revisit the rules.

Just closing the pits and putting the cars in racing order after the safety car, although all bunched up, would be fair now.

Maybe it would be fairer but my point isn’t that the rules are spot on and shouldn’t be changed, I’d rather have it as fair as is possible although I don’t know how you could do it.
What would Ferrari say if it worked as you suggested and they were leading when the sc came out, it bunched all the cars up and then Ferrari had to pit as soon as the pitlane was open. The entire bunched up field would then be ahead of them. There is always going to be an element of circumstance/luck with a safety car, they change races and it’s likely they always will.

My actual point is Ferrari are moaning like crazy when the safety car has always helped some drivers and hindered others depending on where you are on the track and this has been just down to circumstance or some would call it luck. If Alonso had made it past the safety car and finished third instead of Button, would the rules be broken? No, there is not a chance Ferrari would moan and say F1 is no longer credible. They are hypocrites, if they weren’t they wouldn’t be making all this noise over Sunday’s race. They would do what Mercedes did at Monaco this year, and then put it to rest when it didn’t go their way instead of spouting their mouth off.

In years previous, if you pitted (or had to pit) at the wrong time and couldn’t exit the pitlane because of the safety car it was bad luck and it ruined some top team’s races. It also helped middle field drivers who could pit at the right time. It was bad for the teams that were unlucky but they didn’t all start saying it was a scandal. At the bottom of all this it seems to pick out Lewis, what about Vettel? He got the same out of it as Hamilton over Alonso. If Lewis stayed behind the safety car when they were along side, Alonso would have been no better off, he would still have finished 8th (after all the 5sec penalties). Would their moaning then be about Vettel?

They shouldn’t be slagging off like they are, if the rules need changing then it’s because they can be improved regardless of what team you race for. They should be addressing it via FOTA and not shooting their mouth off that F1 has lost it’s credibility.

You cannot deny that Ferrari were unlucky, but I think we need to remain calm whilst others loose their heads. I’d like to know what Fernando would have liked Lewis to have done in this situation? He has already said that he was only one metre from the rear of the McLaren, so surely any serious backing off or breaking would have resulted in an accident?

As has been mentioned elsewhere, the timing of the safety car was “unfortunate” and on this occasion it was Ferrari who lost out. Simple as that. Next time it might be McLaren who loose places.

One concern I have is Fernando’s state of mind for the next race. What will he do when he comes across Lewis on the track? I don’t expect him to run over and shoot him, but I feel Fernando’s temperment wont lean towards a rational or professional.

Front page of La Gazzetta was about the world cup. LdM is quoted as saying ‘we paid too high a price’.’scandoloso’ is a word used very often here without the same implications it has in English, yes it does mean scandal but it has a slightly lesser meaning. Ferrari have over reacted but they feel that they were punished for following rules and others were not accordingly. Alonso has every right to shout and scream he is a passionate driver and has a mentality that many in the UK cannot understand. This is not the first time a driver has been moaning over the radio this year and I think it is the first time he has.

I fully agree. Alonso generally says what he feels – if he makes a mistake he owns up to it and after Canada a fortnight ago he was very philosophical with his bad luck and moved on. He’s every right to be angry at the decision making process but overall the team have over reacted and I’m sure that in a few days they’ll have calmed down.

I agree with the pair of you. I think Alonso and not forgetting Massa have every right to be annoyed. I’m not going to shout them down for it when I like that sort of passion and I’ve said enough times I get sick of PR talk.

Dan you’re right as well that Alonso has at times this season seemed pretty philosophical and mvoes on fairly quickly so this isn’t that bad.

Maybe Ferrari overreacted but as you say, they will calm down. I imagine it’ll still be a sore point for a while yet

Yes, they should be annoyed, they were duped by the SC timing (or Webber/Kovi timing, actually!). Hamilton avoided that situation, and Vettel was ahead anyway, while the rest of the field pitted.

But it almost seems as if Alonso has a red mist in front of him concerning Hamilton: looking at the aerials, Alonso would have been unlikely to make it past the SC even if Hamilton had not ‘hesistated’, or they would all three have seen Vettel disappear, Ham, Alo, and Mas together, and he could have passed Ham due to the nose change.

That would still leave them 6th or 7th, and Vettel out of reach, and trying to make the best of a race gone wrong. But Alonso seemed to be so busy with Hamilton that he could not do that (maybe he was stuck anyway so had time, but he did not seem to try to push Buemi or Sutil at all). Hamilton did not have a big impact on their race, only on his own. The SC did it, and Ferrari were unable to fight back, sadly.

I am very sorry for Massa who seemed to be finally going well again, until the SC struck.
But Ferrari seemed to just go: okay, thats it, no race for us. Instead of trying different strategy (Massa had little to loose, he could have stayed out another lap) and go down fighting.

With that reaction, for me, they let themselves down. It must be disheartening, but they are still in the WDC, and even WCC is still possible if they pick themselves up, but this way it will not work.

Agree with Dan and the rest of this reply colum which is rapidly becoming the F1 fanatic Ferrari fan club lol

Watching Alonso’s interview post race its quite understandable he was annoyed but when you watch his interview he says nothing that was unreasonable. That he got punished for sticking to the rules when Lewis benifited was unfair, and he said it like it was.

Also although it feels like Alonso’s title challenge is falling apart atm we should remember he’s still only 27 points behind. Which is about 11 points in old money. It could yet turn around very quickly.

I agree with rampante (Dan and steph, too then). People (like those claiming Ferrari are a “hypocritical joke” or “Poor cry baby!”) are blowing Ferrari’s and Fernando’s comments out of proportion. And indeed, their favourite drivers (like, I dunno, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button) have been heard whinging over the radio in the past year. Fair enough if they think the team has overrreacted.

It’s not about radio conversations it’s about the entire Ferrari take on it.
Yes Ferrari are a hypocritical joke, they are still going on about it. You didn’t see Mercedes making this kind of fuss when Schuy lost all his points in Monaco. If Alonso made it past the safety car then it would be “Safety car rules are fine” from Ferrari and that is why they are hypocrites. It’s unfair when they don’t benefit, perfectly acceptable when they do.

Suppose it gives Luca something else to moan about other than the new teams he wants to see eradicated.

Erm, Im going to McLaren fan over here an say this, Ferrari are making to big a deal over this whole thing **** happens get over it. The FIA will look at what caused the unfairness just like they have been doing all season.

Alonso has every right to be miffed, at least he’s not expressly blamming Hamilton like the Italian press, but hey the Italian press, what they say matters about as much as what say the Mail says over here.

It’s the way Ferrari have gone about complaining that gets on everyones nerves, there isn’t a super McLaren/Todt/Hamilton/FIA/Stewards/Whiting consiracy going on here, all that happened is the fates did for you this time, maybe next time it’ll be different.

Maybe be itĀ“s bad temper, but in this case ferrari had reasons to be upset.
If they had broke the rules like hamilton did, for sure they would have got the 3th and 4th place at the end of the race, even with an equal hamiltonĀ“s penalty.
Also that 5 sec penalty was a joke.
Looks like all the penaltys that were given to all drivers would not spoil all their races but could still hurt ferrari.
Is this a conspiracy theory, hopefully isnĀ“t, but put mclaren, red bull or mercedes in ferrariĀ“s place and tell me they wouldnĀ“t say nothing.
One more thing, why took so long between hamiltonĀ“s overtaking safety car manouver and when he did take the order that he had to go to the pits. Did you notice that after he passed the pits he still had the 2th place.
By the way, great race from kobayashi, for me, he was the driver of this weekend

Looks like all the penaltys that were given to all drivers would not spoil all their races but could still hurt ferrari.

I’m willing to bet the penalties were wither given that way becase a) the rulebook says that a five-second penalty is the maximum that can be offered for that infringement (when was the last time someone did that?) or b) they wanted to give penalties without altering the outcome of the race too much. It’s getting to be fairly obvious that Ferrari had a hand in flagging those drivers for an obscure pit lane violation, and they no doubt had a view to promoting Alonso and Massa up the standings because they felt they deserved a higher place, which is just plain unfair. McLaren tried to do it in Brazil 2007 when they protested Kubica, Heidfeld and Rosberg for having illegally-cooled fuel, but didn’t both with Nakajima, who was behind Hamilton at the time; having those three drivers penalised would have given Hamilton the World Championship, even if fuel half a degree cooler than it should have been would have offered no advantage. Ferrari are trying to interfere with the race results to get a better finishing position.

Hm, so you are saying that Ferrari did try to fight back after SC, but only off track? Hm, that is not really the way I want them to fight. But they are right that those cars did go to fast.

In the end I guess the fact that the first ones hardly could not do much about it with only a last corner of the sector to go, coupled with a desire to not change the results to much (especially because they might have felt pressured by Ferrari?) made the penalties so low then?

Sinmple as this…alonso can’t still accept that Lewis and Mclaren are winning, not them. He was so proud when he went to ferrari coz he thought he can show them off what he can do when he rides the scarlet cars…now what? He’s got personal bad blood on Lewis and Mclaren and want to beat them but he still can’t,that’s why he was over reacting. Poor cry baby! They should blame webber for the incident for he’s the reason why the safety car went, because of his lame acts when not winning. C’mon guys…you know ever since that he’s realy stupid. :-)

Maybe part of it is frustration by Ferrari at their form compared to others, yes. But, while I do think they are overreacting, and hope they tune it down soon and start focusing on getting back, and even if they might not have complained about the SC rules had they profited, they still are right that the SC car leads to problematic situations. Maybe that is unavoidable, but it cannot hurt to look at it yet again and see if there are better ways.

This is being hugely overblown. Hamilton was really in a 50-50 situation, unsure whether to accelerate after Vettel (who he was chasing for the race after all) or slow down in case he was penalized.

Even if that was true that Hamilton slowed Alonso on purpose, I can well imagine Alonso doing the same if the positions were reversed – and probably getting away with it. He’d be dubbed a sassy driver by most of the press, especially in Spain! Precisely the media reaction after the China GP this year when he snuck ahead of Massa in the pits – it was taken as evidence of his desire to win and quick thinking. But do that to Alonso? It’s Hungary 2007 again when he kept Hamilton waiting in the pits. Interesting echo, in fact. Probably why he believes Hamilton was doing the same to him.

Valencia certainly highlighted the need to review the safety car rules, but Ferrari’s outspoken indignation is hilarious: Schumacher won the 1998 British GP by taking his stop-go penalty after the race had ended! The team has always pushed the rules to the limit of what’s acceptable, and at times have got away with entirely unacceptable breaches, for them to take the moral high ground now beggars belief. And where is Alonso’s previous nonchalance over winning by any means (crashgate!)? It’s rank hypocrisy, highly entertaining, but it beggars belief.

Because basically Ferrari and Alonso judge everyone by their own ‘standards.’ Their real line is: everyone is cheating and politicking – and if they’re not, their dumb! They just hate thinking that they’re losing out in this dirty war, even when the other teams are actually up to nothing (which isn’t to say they never cheat, just that it isn’t quite so pervasive as Ferrari themselves presume). Besides it’s useful cover for Ferrari to overblow this issue because of their own testing breach.

If rules are brought into effect to crack down on what Ferrari did (say, for example, an FIA technical official must be present to ensure no modifications have been made to the car since the previous race), then it’s unlikely Ferrari would be prosecuted. You simply cannot charge them for something they did after a law was made.

It has been interesting to watch the unfolding rivalry between Alonso and Hamilton since 2007,infact it is possible to watch F1 for that reason alone I suppose, but the most recent public outburst from Alonso display a man obsessed and a bit unhinged, obsessed not with cars and winning like all other top racers, but instead with Hamilton. His bitterness towards mclaren adds considerable focus and gloss to his fascination and for sure the endless polemics must be keeping him awake at night… but is that all that is keeping him awake .. could Alonso have developed a schoolyard crush on the beautiful youngster??

Before winning his second title, I read an interview with Alonso. In that interview he stated that he might end his career rather early, he would like to win another title and/or a title with a different team but it was not his desire to stay and try to be a Schumacher.
After meeting Hamilton that changed rather drasticly, it really kind of looks like he is obsessed with beating Hamilton above all. I wish him good luck on his quest, but fair and on the racetrack I hope :-)

Probably it is true that Hamilton was in doubt about passing or not the SC. Maybe yes, maybe not. It looked VERY convenient, in any case.
But I felt like vomiting when Alonso turn the radio on to ask his pit to put some pressure on “Charlie”, and soon after there came the announcement about car number 2 being investigated.
I agree with Keith, Ferrari was very unlucky with the timing of the SC (Massa’s race was completely destroyed when he needed to wait for 14 seconds behind Alonso at the pit). But the reaction from Alonso and the team was absurd, in particular that guy saying to Alonso on the radio that is was “unfair” that Hamilton didn’t loose any position.
The whole mess was ridiculous. Hamilton’s move “looked” like cheating, Alonso’s demands from the car to pressure the race command, the timing of Hamilton’s pit through, Ferrari’s overreaction…

Me? Well, I don’t think I will ever be in that situation, but yes, probably will chek with the engineer. But to send someone talk to ‘Charlie’ sounded awful.
In any case, knowing Alonso, i believe that his problem was that he didn’t have the chance to do the same than Hamilton……

I think McLaren would not have been so vocal about it, but they definitely would have called “Charlie” about it, every team would have. But we can’t compare: Hamilton would have left it to his team to complain and gotten to racing, yes.

That is the role he takes on; Alonso instead does much more of the thinking about strategy, which is what makes him such a great racer, normally. But I think that, for example, Button, or even MSC, in his position would also not have needed reminders to instead focus on the race. Alonso did seem unfocused to me, which cannot have helped his race.

I won’t try to analyze fia’s decision make or Alonso’s moods. However, LDM comments, which insinuates that Ferrari expects further retribution for Hamilton after a penalty has been given and served is intresting. If it happens then it would make f1 a joke as a competative sport in the eyes of the world.
I can’t believe LDM audacity to publicly threaten FIA. They need to call his bluff.

yes mvi i agree with your first comment, that would be logical and it looks like they did forget.

but it would lose a touch of intrigue, its F1 not real life ( unless you are a ferrari fanboy) its fun that we have contentious incidents, im sure Keith enjoys the extra traffic so who loses..apart from some whingeing millionaire?

Alonso really needs to get his act together. For Alonso to complain about a safety car ‘depriving’ him of a podium is crazy IF Hamilton had braked and Alonso avoided either passing him under the safety car or slamming Weber style into the rear of the Mc Laren then as pointed out above Hamilton would have been 8th and Alonso 9th would that have made him happy. The ONLY way he would have been on the podium would have been if Hamilton ACCELERATED and not hesitated so Alonso could also have squeezed passed the pace car. That I contend is the REAL source of his frustration not some technical infringement. Secondly what balls the guy has to talk of conspiracy when he was GIFTED a GP win at Singapore when his team mate conveniently drove into the wall causing a safety car incident. So Alonso get over it score 1-1

I think his comment about being deprived of a podium was separate to the Hamilton issue, and more about the circumstances that meant that 5th back could pit, and the Ferraris must have just missed the pit entry.

Its the fact that they let Hamilton race for 20 laps so he could get enough time between him and Kobayashi. When they saw he had enough time to serve his penalty and still be 2nd, they gave him a small penalty.

Please GQsm, can we just let that rest: they changed the rules after it, that is why stop-and-go/drive-through in last few laps now leads to a time penalty after the race.

Yes, it was overly creative, but it was also a rather different Ferrari, and Alonso had no part in it.

Kimster, if you accept that race control was busy clearing the track and seeing everyone was safe during the SC period, can we agree that the rest of the laps were about on par with FIA stewarding: always longer than we mortals think they should need? Apparently they need to get easier access to aerial shots – just like we had to wait too long before that was shown to us.

First of all, let me say that I am not a Ferrari fan. That said, I do understand their point. The real issue is that in the case of Hamilton’s penalty, as well as the 5 second penalties handed down post race, the penalties did far less to hurt the race of those drivers then they gained by cheating in the first place. What’s dangerous about that is that it sets a precedent that drivers are better off cheating, and accepting whatever small penalty they may be issued later on…

To be honest, i havent been that thrilled with Ferrari’s pit strategies this year and they probably wouldnt have been on the podium anyway even if the whole safety car ordeal never occured… they still had to pit anyway and by the end of the race they had to nurse their tires

England currently holds the upper hand in formula one politics. Hamilton can do what he wants. Ferrari has a valid reason to be upset. Anyway, the world is a sphere, and things turn around. I hope it gets better in the future.

With Jean Todt(France and ex-Ferrari Director) leading the FIA, the stewards of the meeting were Manuel Vidal Perucho (Spain), Gerd Ennser (Germany), Radovan Novak (Czech Republic) and Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Germany).

Hamilton can do what he wants

Mmmm nah. This season has seen a lot of reprimands, granted. But he’s been punished harshly on many times in previous years, leading people to think the FIA had it in for McLaren.

This season the FIA (led by Jean Todt remember?), listened to fans and are trying NOT to destroy races by handing out harsh punishments after the fact and change race results after the race has finished.

Hamilton is clearly the most noticeable recipient of these reprimands (in the minds of Ferrari/Alonso fans at least). But that is what the rules allow. Schumacher on the other hand, got an unfair penalty, due to the very same rulebook.

It was noted by Joe Saward that:

In Monaco for example, he [Alonso] should have been penalised for an overtaking manoeuvre on Karun Chandhok under caution, as the very point at which Nico Hulkenberg had crashed. Race Control missed that incident and Fernando got away with it

That’s a 25 second penalty he got away with. You think that’s fair? He didn’t even get a reprimand.

This is just F1. It’s been like this for years and years. It’s always controversial. Settle in for this being the case for years Franco, it’s how sport goes.